[Marquee Sports Network announces 2025 Chicago Cubs spring training and exhibition broadcast schedule][MORE: Ian Happ explains why Cubs Tokyo travel is ‘way better’ than London trip]“Our big communication during the offseason was planning a week to 10 days earlier,” Hottovy said in an exclusive interview with Elise Menaker. “If we could move the timeline up […]
[Marquee Sports Network announces 2025 Chicago Cubs spring training and exhibition broadcast schedule][MORE: Ian Happ explains why Cubs Tokyo travel is ‘way better’ than London trip]“Our big communication during the offseason was planning a week to 10 days earlier,” Hottovy said in an exclusive interview with Elise Menaker. “If we could move the timeline up a little bit so we knew had the workload built up. We weren’t going to change a ton in terms of ramp up, volume wise, for our guys but making sure that their bodies were ready. We understand going to Japan 10-12 days sooner than when the season starts normally is going to put us in a little different threshold in terms of workload, but guys have responded great.Cubs left fielder Ian Happ voiced his happiness around this schedule set-up compared to their last international trip in 2023 to play the Cardinals in London.With Spring Training just under 24 hours away from being officially underway, the Chicago Cubs had to take a slightly different approach to prep work compared to past seasons due to the Tokyo series in mid-March.“They’ve come in a really good place, and it’s just something we need to be cognitive of, making sure that guys aren’t trying to do too much knowing that we have a game on March 18th. Then we’ll have that weird dead period after. We have like another 7-8 Spring Training games, and then we’ll be ramping back up. Spring Training does have this feeling of being very montonous at times. So this trip is definitely going to break that up. It’ll be a lot of fun.”Pitchers and catchers report to Mesa, Ariz., Sunday. Tune in for live coverage beginning at 12:30 p.m. on Marquee Sports Network.Well, Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy provided some insight as to how he planned this 2025 Spring Training for pitchers.“For me, this schedule is way better,” Happ said. “The nice part is [these games after Japan] are Spring Training games, so they’re early. It’s not night games. Some of the times when you come back, you’re waking up naturally around 5 to 6 a.m. That’s kind of normal for Spring Training so it shouldn’t mess you up too bad, but how quickly do you want to get back into it and not risk any injury?”
